Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-01-12
TuLE LANDS.
State Prison Labor on Reclamation
Works.

|
State Prison Labor Reclamation
| Works.
W. S. Green, of Colusa, delivered yester-
day an interesting address before the Sac
ramento Board of Trade, on the subject OF
the reclamation of tule lands of the Sacra-
mento river by aid of prison labor. He
thought it possible to reclaim between 3OO,-
600 and 100000 acres of land along the
Sacramento river, now almost useless, If
the State would furnish the labor; and the
tax on this land, once reclaimed. would
support the State Prison for all time. The
State should be asked to do nothing more
! than furnish the labor and board the
prisoners, furnishing only so many guards
per hundred prisoners as it now furnishes
This would take this class of labor out OF
competition with free labor, and have 1t
create, as it were, lands upon which tens
| of thousands of free laborers could lind
employment. Sacramento city was more
largely interested in the reclamation OF
| these lands than any other place, and MIR.
Green said he brought it before
the business men of this city
to see if the scheme would
find an Endorsement in the judgment of
first-class business men.
In answer TO question as to the practl-
cability of guarding the men on this work,
Mr.. Green said that prison labor had been
successfully employed on the leyees OF the
Mississippi river.
Mr.. Green said that ii would cost great
deal of money to reclaim the tule lands OF
Colusa, Suffer, Yolo, Solano and Sacra-
mento counties, and if left entirely to prl-
vate enterprise this generation might not
see its accomplishment but he maintained
that there was no engineering dlfflculty IN
the way of thorough and safe reclama-
ton. He had studied the Sacramento
river for over thirty years, and as early as
1867 suggested the reclamation OF Its tule
basins by means of outlets, but his outlet
theory did not in any particular interfere
with what is known as the letty theory, as
he would presently explain.
Immediately at the town of Colusa the
character of the river changes; above that
point the fall is fifteen inches and more TO
the mile; below, six inches and less. Above,
the river vibrates between hard-pan banks,
which are in the neighborhood of mile
apart, and the levees are from quarter of
mile to a mile apart, and hence the
water can be carried between the levees to
that point. Below Colusa the land falls
rapidly back, and the levees must be placed
on the immediate bank. The effect of the
levees already built had been to scour out
the bottom of the river and make it deeper,
but there was a limit to the amount of
water that could be forced between earthen
banks.
Mr.. Green's proposition was: First, to
build high levees along either bank of the
river; second, to cut large canal on the
west side of the river, from point near
Colusa, on the western border of the tules
to Suisun Bay near beaverton third, to
conduct the waters of Butte slough, on the
east side of the river, between nigh EN-
bankments, down and into the river again
at Gray's Bend, a few miles above the
mouth of the Feather, and opposite the
mouth of that canal take out another and
conduct it into the first near Davisyille;
fourth, take canal out opposite the mouth
of the American river, and run it across to
the main canal, near the junction of the
other two. At the head of each canal he
would build immense headgates of solid
masonry.
with these levees, these headgates, and
these canals constructed" said, would
run the whole business by telegraph. Sup
pose. for example, that the river was full to
as near the top of the levees as prudence
would permit, and the Signal Service should
signal a storm for the headwaters of the
Sacramento, l would order every gate
opened and run every possible drop OF
water into the bay, so that the rise would
come down on an empty river. would
have Geographic communication with
every watershed, and whenever l concluded
that could make the river carry the COM
ing waters, would shut down the gates
and make it scour out whatever OF deposit
a slackened current had permitted, just be-
low each outlet. In this way the jetty and
the outlet theories can be made to work in
harmony"
Mr.. Green said that Cache and Putah
creeks debouching into the canal IN tor
rents so close to their mountain sources,
had been urged as an insurmountable OBJ
stacle to his canal project; but he thought
he could easily overcome any engineering
difficulty here suggested. He would go up
into the mountains on those streams and
their tributaries, and build dams with |
apertures at the bottom large enough to let |
as much water through as could be safely |
carried by the canal, and hold the accumu- |
lation back until it could come down
safely. Cache creek could be pretty much
handled by cutting down its outlet at Clear
Lake five or six feet and using the lake as
a reservoir These works in the mount
aims could be used for storing water Tor II
rigation in the summer.
If sediment from these creeks should
happen TO accumulate too much in the
canal it could be pumped up on to the
embankment of the canal, thus strength
ening the weakest point from year 10 year.
Mr.. Heald had once proposed to some per-
sons on the river to build barge and put
upon it pump with engine and full
equipment that would throw 10000 gallons
minute twenty feet high, at cost of
S25, ZOO. This would cover en- acre foot
deep in about four minutes. This pump
would pump mud about as fast as water.
Mr. Green was asked great many ques-
tons by different members of the Board,
and answered all satisfactorily, and at the
close the Board unanimously passed reso-
luton indorsing what had been said, and
requesting Mr.. Green to draw bill in ac-
cordance with his ideas, and pledging the
moral support of the Board to the matter.